I was pretty messed up teenager: Claire Danes

London: Homeland star Claire Danes says she was a messed up teenager as she constantly tried to project an adult image.

The 34-year-old actress, who has son a Cyrus with actor husband Hugh Dancy, rose to fame appearing in `My So-Called Life` when she was just 15-year-old, reported Contactmusic.

"I was a pretty messed up and misanthropic teenager, and it was good for me to find some good friends whom I could talk to and get rid of some of my angst," Danes said.

"I was way too serious and overly concerned with trying to project this adult self. When I hit my twenties, I figured out that adults don`t really have that much certainty about their lives either," she added.

Danes took a career break to study psychology at America`s prestigious Yale university in 1998 but dropped out after two years after realising academics was not what she wanted to do.